Locarno's Spanish Film Previews Showcase a Country Producing More Features Than Any Other in Europe
Spain made more feature films in 2025 than any other country in Europe, according to the Cannes Marché du Film's 2026 Focus report — and the proof was on screen this week at the 79th Locarno Film Festival, where the second edition of the Spanish Film Previews unveiled a slate of projects stretching from the Basque coast to Galicia.
The showcase, supported by Spain's ICAA film agency and moderated by Tallinn Black Nights programmer Javier García Puerto, presented titles spanning period drama, hybrid documentary-fiction, and a directorial debut built on 6,000 undeveloped negatives from the Spanish Civil War. Four of the featured titles are pan-regional co-productions; three have international partners, including Belgian company Caviar on one of the headline projects (Variety).
That headline project is Blind Ants, Igor Legarreta's third film, described as a tragic rural western and historical drama. Adapted from a Basque novel by Ramón Pinilla, it is produced by Basque house Lamia, sold internationally by Playtime, and set for Spanish release on October 9 through Disney's BVI. At Locarno, audiences saw an excerpt set in 1935 on the cliffs of Bizkaia's north coast, where a storm destroys an English coal ship. Legarreta's previous work and the novel's deep roots in Basque literature place the film squarely in a regional tradition that has been energised by tax credits of up to 70% — an incentive structure that has made the Basque Country one of the engines of Spanish production (Variety).
The most striking title in the lineup may be War Material Captured From the Enemy, the directorial debut of Nacho Ruiz Capillas — an editor whose credits include Alejandro Amenábar's The Others, Agora, Maixabel, and The 47. The film centres on a box of 6,000 negatives, mostly from the Spanish Civil War, that were never developed or seen. Ruiz Capillas inherits them and turns the archive into a first feature, produced by Horacio Alcalà of The Aurora Project (Variety; Locarno Festival).
Two hybrid doc-fiction titles broadened the slate further. Bed of Grass, directed by Carmela Román, is described as an artistic and emotional rehabilitation drama. Juliette & Camille represents Catalonia and Galicia in a form that blends documentary observation with fictional construction. Diego Llorente's How the Lights Get In, his third fiction feature, was picked up for world sales by Patra Spanou Film while still in post-production — an early bet on a director whose Notes on a Summer competed at Rotterdam and won a Silver Alexander at Thessaloniki (Variety).
What gives the Spanish Previews their weight is the geography behind the films. Regional production, not just Madrid-based studios, is driving Spain's output. Catalonia leads, with the Basque Country, Galicia, Andalusia, and Asturias — home to How the Lights Get In producer Failo Cine — all contributing distinct projects and infrastructure. Each region brings its own tax regime, its own language, and its own literary tradition to the screen.
The 79th Locarno Festival, running August 5–15, 2026, encompasses 234 films across 11 sections, with 103 world premieres and 70 countries represented — a scale that frames the Spanish showcase as one thread in a much larger fabric. But for the sales agents and buyers who track these previews as early signals of what will reach theatres and platforms in the coming years, the Spanish slate offers a concentrated view of where one of Europe's most prolific industries is heading.
